African dance is an art form with a vast history. At the University of Pittsburgh, the Shona Sharif African Dance Ensemble educates students, as well as the entire Pittsburgh community, in this centuries old culture. See how this art is still practiced as the next group of students jump, sing, stomp and dance to the rhythm of the drum.

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Portrayal & Perception: African American Men and Boys

Young African American men score below their counterparts in other racial and ethnic groups when it comes to graduation rates, literacy rates...

Black History Programming on WQED-TV

STAND! Untold Stories of the Civil Rights Movement – Monday, Martin Luther King Day, 1/19 at 9pm
TAND! chronicles the key events which led to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) selecting Birmingham, Alabama as the site for the now famous 'Project C' (Project Confrontation) in 1963. Bringing to light often overlooked and unknown facts about the system of segregation in Birmingham, Alabama, STAND! features the brave men and women who risked all to bring about its demise. STAND! dispels many myths that the Birmingham Civil Rights Movement was all Black, all Male, and led by ministers who rallied in 1963 and liberated a city. In the spring of 1962, a group of students from Miles College led by Frank Dukes, their 31-year- old Student Government Association President, created and launched a Selective Buying Campaign. Supporting the students were Miles College President Dr. Lucius H Pitts, selected faculty, local housewives, and members of Birmingham's White community. These factions brought about significant desegregation before Dr. King's arrival to the city in 1963. STAND! features interviews from heroes and heroines of the movement, who have, until now, been inexplicably unsung. The music of jazz legend Cleve Eaton, who played with Count Basie, Ramsey Lewis and many others, is seamlessly interwoven with hip hop beats from King B Low and gospel music by Nims Gay and Pat Fields. This authentic combination of music gives STAND! the true feeling and power that was the Movement.

Wylie Avenue Days – Thursday, 2/5 at 8pm and Sunday, 2/8 at noon
The only street in the U.S. that began at a church and ended at a jail, Wylie Avenue, in Pittsburgh's Hill District. This one-hour special recalls when it represented the heart of black life in Pittsburgh, much as Harlem did in New York. This program captures it all - clubs like the Crawford and the Hurricane where the music attracted both blacks and whites, the church picnics and family businesses that were all a part of the life in this unique neighborhood. The spirit of the area effectively captured, results in a program with universal appeal.

An Evening With Gwen Ifill – Sunday, 2/8 at 2:30pm
Gwen Ifill is the moderator and managing editor of Washington Week and the anchor of the PBS NewsHour. She is also a best-selling author and the first African American women to host a prominent political talk show. This show features Gwen interviewing prominent African Americans.

An Evening with Vernon Jordan – Sunday, 2/8 at 3:30pm
Vernon Jordan is the past President and CEO of the National Urban League; past Executive Director of the United Negro College Fund; and currently a Senior Managing Director of Lazard Freres & Co. LLC in New York and Senior Counsel with the law firm of Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld, LLP. This program features a revealing interview of Jordan by Gwen Ifill.

The Editor and the Dragon: Horace Carter Fights the Klan – Sunday, 2/8 at 4:30pm
Oscar-winning actor Morgan Freeman narrates the story of the life of the Tabor-Loris Tribune founder and Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Horace Carter and the very real dangers that he faced as he challenged the Ku Klux Klan in the Carolinas and its leader, Thomas Hamilton. An FBI investigation resulted in arrests and convictions of Klansmen who flogged and beat blacks and whites who crossed what the KKK saw as “moral lines.” Carter’s refusal to allow the Ku Klux Klan to attack the citizens in his beloved Tabor City community is an inspiring American story.

Safe Harbor – Thursday, 2/12 at 8pm
The incredible story of strength and determination, told through the eyes of the slaves and the people who risked their lives to save them. This show follows the Underground Railroad through a little-known passage to freedom in the northernmost corner of Pennsylvania.

Independent Lens: Through a Lens Darkly: Black Photographers and the Emergence of a People – Monday, 2/16 at 10pm
Thomas Allen Harris tells the story of the pioneering African American photographers—men and women, celebrated and anonymous—who have recorded the lives and aspirations of generations, from slavery to the present.

One Night in March – Thursday, 2/19 at 8:30pm
This is the story of an historic college basketball game that captured the national imagination, influenced a state, and helped redefine a sport. Interviews, rare footage and archival photos transport viewers back to a tumultuous time in United States history, just as the civil rights movement began gaining momentum throughout the South. In the late 1950’s and early 1960’s, Mississippi State University’s powerhouse basketball program earned several conference titles and national rankings. Despite their success, the Bulldogs could not play in the NCAA national championship due to an unwritten rule prohibiting all-white Mississippi collegiate athletic teams from competing against integrated teams. Mississippi State’s president, its head basketball coach and their players ultimately risked their safety and their futures by defying this rule-not to mention the governor and state legislature-in pursuit of a national championship. This award-winning documentary recounts the 1962-1963 season and the events leading up to the team eventually playing in the tournament against the
integrated Loyola University club. This program concludes with a return trip to Loyola, where the former players from those teams reunite and celebrate the landmark game they participated in 50 years earlier.

Austin City Limits Featuring Gary Clark, Jr. – Saturday, 2/21 at 11pm
Gary Clark, Jr. is a young, African American guitarist and vocalist, and a native of Austin who is getting rave reviews everywhere. Hailed by the New York Times, “He may be the next Hendrix…churning his distorted strings into a euphoric moment of psychedelia,” and by Entertainment Weekly, “Every generation has its chosen one and right now, this is Clark’s time,” Clark comes back home to Austin and “brings down the house.”

Memories of The March: Pittsburgh Stories – Sunday, 2/22 at 2:30pm
It’s been half a century since a quarter of a million people gathered in Washington, D.C. to protest racial inequality and to support civil rights for all Americans. At that demonstration, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. gave his most quoted speech, “I have a dream.” Men and women from Western Pennsylvania who attended The March recount that momentous event, explaining how it changed their lives and continues to shape their present-day actions.

Mr. Civil Rights: Thurgood Marshall and the NAACP – Sunday, 2/22 at 3pm
Civil rights attorney Thurgood Marshall’s triumph in the 1954 Brown vs. the Board of Education Supreme Court decision to desegregate America’s public schools completed the final leg of a journey of over 20 years laying the groundwork to end legal segregation. Marshall won more Supreme Court cases than any lawyer in American history, making the work of civil rights pioneers like the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Rosa Parks possible.

Independent Lens—American Denial - Monday, 2/23 at 10pm
Llewellyn Smith uses the story of Gunnar Myrdal’s 1944 investigation of Jim Crow racism as a springboard to explore the power of unconscious biases and how the ideals of liberty, equality and justice still affect notions of race and class today.

Experience: “Return to the Roots of Civil Rights” – Thursday, 2/26 at 8pm
WQED follows a group of Western Pennsylvanians who journeyed to the sites of America's Civil Rights struggle. The "Return to the Roots of Civil Rights Bus Tour" covered nearly 2,600 miles, traveling from Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania to cities throughout the Deep South. Participants, who ranged in age from 15 to 75, explored historic locations and met some of the foot soldiers who helped abolish segregation.

Integrating Ole Miss -- James Meredith & Beyond – Thursday, 2/26 at 8:30pm
This show presents the University of Mississippi as a microcosm for the Civil Rights Movement in the state and across the nation. In the midst of the Civil Rights Movement, James Meredith became the first black student to enroll at Ole Miss. His application created an uproar that made news around the world and culminated in a deadly riot and federal intervention. Fifty years later, the university is fully integrated and, in 2008, the international spotlight was once again on the university---this time, however, to cover a presidential debate that featured the man who would become America’s first Black president.

Classical WQED-FM 89.3

WQED-FM will be celebrating Black History Month throughout the month of February.
All February long, WQED-FM will honor Black History Month by featuring the works of black composers and performers…The artists’ pieces will air throughout the month during all dayparts, accompanied by our on-air talents’ incisive and informative commentary that will lend to our listeners a great historical perspective. Works by Duke Ellington, Branford and Wynton Marsalis, Andre Watts, the Imani Winds, Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, William Grant Still and many more will be featured.

Audio on Demand

featured specials

WQED is pleased to partner with Highmark to bring you these special reports on "Men & Cancer" and "Women & Cancer." Every year cancer claims the lives of nearly 300,000 men in America. According to the American Cancer Society, getting the facts about cancer is an important step in taking care of your overall health.

Audio on Demand

featured specials

WQED is pleased to partner with Highmark to bring you these special reports on "Men & Cancer" and "Women & Cancer." Every year cancer claims the lives of nearly 300,000 men in America. According to the American Cancer Society, getting the facts about cancer is an important step in taking care of your overall health.

Local Programming

featured specials

WQED is pleased to partner with Highmark to bring you these special reports on "Men & Cancer" and "Women & Cancer." Every year cancer claims the lives of nearly 300,000 men in America. According to the American Cancer Society, getting the facts about cancer is an important step in taking care of your overall health.

documentaries

WQED first told her story in "Portraits for the Home Front." Now the legacy of Elizabeth Black continues in a new documentary.